diff --git a/src/plugins/select/bluegene/plugin/bluegene.c b/src/plugins/select/bluegene/plugin/bluegene.c
index 0ec400f6fa1bea18170e99343eea90b9dbc77db5..cc6774a88d22dc46c7bb8b1263aac48f3f46e340 100644
--- a/src/plugins/select/bluegene/plugin/bluegene.c
+++ b/src/plugins/select/bluegene/plugin/bluegene.c
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
 				 * down switches and nodes */
 #define BG_POLL_TIME 1	        /* seconds between poll of state
 				 * change in bg blocks */
-#define MAX_FREE_RETRIES           10 /* max number of
+#define MAX_FREE_RETRIES           200 /* max number of
 					* FREE_SLEEP_INTERVALS to wait
 					* before putting a
 					* deallocating block into